For everyone who wants to enjoy delicious food AND stay fit and healthy.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Orchids at the Palm Court for Valentine's Dinner

Here are the highlights of what we tried from Orchids' special Valentine's Day menu:

The first courses may have been our favorites. Mine was heavenly: Butter poached Maine lobster, bottom photo (what's not to love about that?) with ricotta cheese and organic egg ravioli. My Valentine and dear husband of 15 years had seared tuna with a potato crust, accented with bits of house cured bacon and a Brussels sprout salad.

Second course:arugula salad with salt-cured foie gras, late harvest Riesling vinaigrette and pomegranate gelee -- I hesitated to order this because of what I've read about foie gras (treatment of the animals, not to mention the health profile of liver), but the waiter recommended it. I must admit, the stuff tasted mighty fine--I can see why it's such a delicacy. (Top photo)

We both had a fish dish for our third course, sand dabs, which we found underwhelming. We also both ordered duck breast next, with braised cabbage pierogis (that didn't work for me), cipollini onions (very tasty) and a little spinach.

Finally, we enjoyed French press coffee with a dessert duet of frozen passion fruit souffle and chocolate bete noire. Along with a variety of wines, this was a food and wine blowout in a lovely setting, perfect for Valentine's Day....but not likely to be repeated anytime soon, for obvious healthy-foodie reasons!

Author info

My day job is college professor -- of mass communication and journalism, at the University of Cincinnati. I've probably got a few more years to go, and it's a good gig. Love to travel, cook, dine out, and work out.